Seeing God
Seeing God
1/5 Reading Portions: Genesis 5; Matthew 5; Ezra 5; Acts 5
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8
PURE
The natural, unsaved person can nod in agreement to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was a man, generally speaking. To claim He is God incarnate according to Scripture, however, is another thing entirely. Some may affirm deity to Christ’s person, which comes by supernatural revelation from God the Father (Matt 16:17), nevertheless, the confession of Christ’s deity falls short of Biblical truth and falls far short of God’s glorious nature and character. Although Peter’s confession was blessed in its revelation, Peter’s rebuking the Lord Jesus over the revelation of the gospel truth of Christ crucified and resurrected (Matt 16:21-22), Peter was in turn rebuked by the Lord as Satanic in his sentimentality (Matt 16:23). To the unsaved, Christ’s deity is more akin to the pagan gods of Baal and Asherah.
To see Jesus Christ as God requires a pure heart; and all human beings, since and including Adam, have an impure heart. It is written,
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
Seeing Jesus Christ as fully God and fully Man requires, not only heavenly revelation, it also requires holy regeneration (Ezek 36:26), as well as a renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2; Eph 4:23). We have no doubt heard the expression, “The greatest distance the truth must travel is from the head to the heart.” In the kingdom of heaven, it is opposite. The greatest distance the truth must travel is from the heart to the head. Once we are saved by God’s grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9), and we have become new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), we must renew our minds with the truth of Scripture so that our thinking becomes aligned with the reality that we have been spiritually regenerated. Then, when the head aligns with the heart, we will seek Christ at all times and see Christ everywhere, especially in Scripture.
New heart and spirit, God does give,
And making the soul pure;
By grace through faith is how we live,
And by God’s Word, most sure.
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